This is terrible news for Microsoft. Windows is Microsoft's biggest profit driver, and if the consumer computing industry moves toward tablet computing -- where Microsoft is quickly becoming a nobody -- it could be in trouble.

How did Microsoft lose so much so fast?

HP was dissatisfied with Windows as a tablet operating system, according to TechCrunch. Instead it will look at using Google Android, as well as its newly acquired WebOS. And the Courier just wasn't up to snuff. The era of touch devices that use styluses has long passed.

This leaves Microsoft with just ASUS, MSI, and a few other PC makers as potential tablet computing partners. And those companies are also working on Android flavored tablets as well. (Dell appears to be leaning toward Android.) If HP didn't think Windows 7 was fit for a tablet, we hardly see ASUS or MSI producing a good tablet with Windows.

The early indication for tablets is that a mobile operating system is the best basis for them. It's lightweight, so it can run quickly and efficiently in the lighter hardware of a tablet. And because mobile phones are much more touch-focused than desktop computers, it seems a mobile OS could be more easily configured for tablet-sized touch computing.

To be sure, Microsoft has a new mobile operating system in the works that looks impressive. It could potentially be good for tablet computing. But Microsoft hasn't put it on phones for sale yet. That's expected by year end.

By the time it gets its new mobile OS on a phone, Apple will working on the SECOND version of the iPad. Microsoft, meanwhile, will probably not have its FIRST tablet out yet.

So, Microsoft is watching its two biggest rivals -- Apple and Google -- enter into the new big computing space while it sits on the sidelines. That's not where it wanted to be.

Recommended For You

The Board Room

Editors' Picks

As I've noted in these discussions before about the vaunted HP Slate, concept video and specsheet, a desktop OS on an Atom processor is just a netbook without the keyboard. Battery life will not be nearly as good as the iPad. It'll be slow to boot. And, it'll get really hot. You need a Mobile OS and a Mobile chip for the new breed of mobile tablets. Of course HP was looking around. They had a working demo of the Slate back in January, there's no reason why it was taking so long for the device to come to market, except for dissatisfaction with the performance. People say W7 was designed with touch in mind, but that's not good enough. The OS has to be designed from the ground up around touch, not with touch in mind.

Anyway, I think HP saw the writing on the wall and made a smart move. Let's just hope they're not too late, as I still think Android on Tegra 2 chips will be the biggest competitor to the iPad.

As for Courier, it was always vaporware. They hadn't even shown a non-working mockup, to show how the hinge would work. Also, they needed to figure out a way for the screen border next to the hinge to virtually disappear. Having a 2-inch black stripe down the middle of an unfolded Courier during movie playback was not going to work, no matter what the fanbois were oohing or ahhing about.

1) Tablet computing is a completely different thing compared to PCs. Think of them as two different animals when discussing market share etc.
2) Apple will have 2010 and 1H11 all to itself. (similar to the iphone). With aggressive price point, they are trying to get a few million units out there in ultimate hopes of getting solid 20-30% share to begin with. They have learned from the 1980s.
3) Competitors cant seem to get past the whole app store/ multiple product ecosystem (iphone, ipod, mac, ipad) of apple.